192 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



In the table several varieties are rated as of first importance in 

 either the New Jersey or the Chesapeake peninsula section, but are 

 not mentioned as being grown at all in either of the other sections. 

 The conditions in each section are sufficiently similar to suggest the 

 probability that a variety which can be grown with a high degree 

 of success in any one of them is at least a promising sort for trial in 

 others. (B. P. I. B. 194.) 



COMMERCIAL APPLE ORCHARDING. 



Handling and Disposition of Apple Crops. The financial suc- 

 cess of a commercial apple orchard depends largely upon the methods 

 used in picking, sorting, packing, and disposing of the crops. These 

 operations involve a large share of the expense of the enterprise; 

 hence the owner should carefully study and investigate the most 

 recent and economical methods in practice by others before he adopts 

 any. If the crops are rightly handled there will be no difficulty in 

 finding a ready market for choice Erst-class winter apples. 



All fruit must be carefully hand picked, avoiding bruising or 

 breaking of the skin or straining of the stem at its juncture with the 

 apple, for a loosening of the stem at its base will induce rot to set 

 in as quickly as the breaking of the skin. Some orchardists use for 

 a picking receptacle a convenient-sized basket, lined or padded to 

 avoid bruising, with an adjustable bail, so as to allow the fruit to be 

 carefully dumped in piles under the shade of trees. To the piles 

 barrels are hauled and distributed for packing, and a gang of sorters 

 and packers follow, sorting and packing the fruit into the barrels. 

 Another method is to use a 2-bushel grain sack which has its ends 

 so fastened together with a strap or cord that it can be swung under 

 the left arm, the strap crossing the right shoulder, and the open end 

 of the sack, with a hoop in it to keep it open, resting on the breast, 

 thus enabling the picker to use both hands. 



A platform wagon filled with open-headed barrels follow the 

 pickers between rows, and the fruit is emptied from the sacks into 

 the barrels until filled, when the load is drawn to a packing house 

 (constructed on the premises) provided with long sorting tables, 

 where it is dumped. The fruit is sorted and packed direct from the 

 tables into the barrels. 



The time for picking the apple must be determined by its ma- 

 turity or stage of ripeness, and not by any particular date. Some va- 

 rieties should be picked much earlier than others, for upon the stage 

 of maturity and time of picking depend largely the keeping quality 

 of the apple. Sometimes a difference of one or two weeks in date of 

 picking will show marked difference in keeping. If the apple is left 

 on the trees after it is fully matured the ripening process will go on 

 more rapidly than if taken off and placed in a cool room or cellar or 

 taken at once to cold storage. It is better to be on the safe side and 

 pick the fruit a little before maturity rather than to leave it until 

 overripe. The common practice of allowing the fruit to remain in 

 heaps under the trees for several days is a mistake. The sooner the 

 apple is removed after picking to the cool cellar or to cool storage 

 the better will it keep. 



